She consumed sleeping pills but felt they were ineffective. She then tried to hang herself and failed. Finally, she slit her wrists and fell unconscious.

She consumed sleeping pills but felt they were ineffective. She then tried to hang herself and failed. Finally, she slit her wrists and fell unconscious.

On Tuesday, 31-year-old Sonali Sachdeva was in police custody for the alleged murder of her two minor children and attempt to suicide.

A flashback of the incidents revealed the horror that took place in a New Mahavir Nagar house in Tilak Nagar on

March 19.

Pramod and Sonali Sachdeva lived in a rented house with their two children — seven-month-old Jatin and two-and-half-years-old Jia.

Her husband, a pump driver with the Delhi Jal Board, was under some debt and was not able to repay the money he had taken from people.

Police said on the evening of March 18, the couple had a fight over the issue, one of the many they have had over their poor financial condition.

“Sonali asked her husband about getting their daughter admitted in a school. He apparently said they do not have money to afford it and added that it was anyway difficult for him to bear the expenses of two children,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) Sharad Aggarwal.

Police said on March 19 at around 2:00 a.m. Sonali saw her husband lying unconscious on the floor in the house. He had consumed poison and was declared brought dead at the hospital later.

“She saw her unconscious husband and thought of it as an end to her world. She then smothered both her children to death,” said a senior police officer on the condition of anonymity, as he is not authorised to speak to the media.

He said Sonali then wrote a suicide note in which she said no one was responsible for their actions and they are taking their children along, as they would not be able to survive without them. She tried to kill herself thrice but failed.

Sonali was found by her father-in-law Amarnath Sachdeva who came to their house around 9:30 p.m. on March 19.